Existence cannot be forced to go according to you; it flows in its own way. If you can flow with it, you will be positive. - Osho

I was staying in a village rest house. It was a very poor village, but it was filled with many dogs. They all gathered in the night around the rest house; it must have been their usual habit. The rest house was a good place – big trees, shadows, and they must have been resting there every night. So I was staying there, and one minister of a particular state was staying there. The minister became very much disturbed because the dogs were barking, creating much nuisance. Half the night passed and the minister couldn’t sleep, so he came to me.

He said, ”Are you asleep?” I was fast asleep, so he came near to me, made me wake up and asked me, ”Please tell me how you could fall into sleep amid such noises all around. At least twenty to thirty dogs are there, and they are fighting and barking and doing everything that dogs ordinarily do. So what to do? I cannot sleep, and I am so tired after the whole day’s journey. If I cannot sleep, it will be difficult for me. The next day I have to go again on a tour, and I will leave early in the morning. Sleep doesn’t seem to come, and I have tried all the methods I have learned and heard about – chanting a mantra, praying to God, etc. I have done everything, but nothing happens, so what to do now?”

So I told him, ”Those dogs are not gathered here for you or to disturb you. They are not even aware that a minister is staying here; they do not read newspapers. They are completely ignorant. They are not here purposefully, they are not concerned with you. They are doing their work. Why are you getting disturbed?”

So he said, ”Why should I not? How not to? With so much barking, how can I go into sleep?”

So I told him, ”Do not fight with the barking. You are fighting – that is the problem, not the noise. The noise is not disturbing you, you are disturbing yourself because of the noise. You are against the noise, so you have a condition. You are saying, ’If the dogs stop barking, then I will sleep.’ The dogs won’t listen to you. You have a condition. You feel that if the condition is fulfilled, then you can sleep. This condition is disturbing you. Accept dogs! Do not make a condition that ’If they stop barking, then I will sleep.’ Just accept.

”Dogs are there and they are barking; do not resist, do not fight, do not try to forget those noises. Accept them and listen to them, they are beautiful. The night is so silent, and they are barking so vitally – just listen. This will be the mantra, the right mantra: just listen to them.”

So he said, ”Okay! I do not believe that this will help, but as there is nothing else to do, I will try.” He fell asleep, and the dogs were still barking. In the morning he said, ”This is miraculous. I accepted them; I withdrew my condition. I listened. Those dogs became very musical, and their barking, their noise, was not disturbing. Rather, it became a sort of lullaby, and I fell into deep sleep because of it.”

It depends on your mind. If you are positive, then everything becomes positive. If you are negative, then everything turns negative, everything turns sour. So please remember this -not only about noises, but about everything in life. If you feel that something negative exists around you, go and find the cause within. It is you. You must be expecting something, you must be desiring something, you must be making some conditions.

Existence cannot be forced to go according to you; it flows in its own way. If you can flow with it, you will be positive. If you fight with it, you will become negative and the whole cosmos around you will turn negative.

OSHO